The Energy Information Administration released its weekly report on the status of petroleum inventories in the United States today.

Here are some highlights:

CRUDE INVENTORIES:Crude oil inventories increased by 4.1 million barrels to a total of 376.4 million barrels. At 376.4 million barrels, inventories are 35.7 million barrels above last year (10.5%) and are above the upper limit of the average range.

GASOLINE INVENTORIES:Gasoline inventories decreased by 2.9 million barrels to 230.4 million barrels. At 230.4 million barrels, inventories are down 1.2 million barrels, or 0.5% lower than last year. Here's how individual regions and their gasoline inventory fared last week: East Coast (-0.3mb); Midwest (+0.2mb); Gulf Coast (-2.6mb); Rockies (+0.4mb); and West Coast (-0.7mb). It is important to note which regions saw increases/decreases as this information likely drives prices up (in the case of falling inventories), or down (in the case of rising inventories).

DISTILLATE (diesel, heating oil) INVENTORIES:Distillate inventories decreased by 2.3 million barrels to a total of 123.6 million barrels. At 123.6 million barrels, inventories are now 13.9% lower than a year ago. Total distillate inventories stand 19.9 million barrels lower than their year ago level.

IMPLIED DEMAND:Products supplied to end users amounted to 18.4 million barrels per day, or 636,000 barrels per day lower than the previous week. Compared to the same period last year, product supplied was nearly 250,000 barrels higher.

REFINERY OUTPUT/UTILIZATION:Refinery utilization decreased to 82.9%, down 0.9% vs. last week's numbers. Gasoline production increased last week averaging 8.9 million barrels per day while distillate fuel production decreased, averaging just under 4.3 million barrels per day.

Utilization rates for the last week were as follows: East Coast: 72.3%, Midwest: 88.5%, Gulf Coast: 81.8%, Rocky Mountain: 94.6%, West Coast: 81.1%. These percentages show how much of a region's overall capacity were used to refine oil. It is important to note these percentages, because the lower the utilization percent, the lower output, which has a direct impact on local gasoline prices. If refiners in your region have low output, your more likely to see prices rise.

OVERALL SUPPLY:Total oil stocks in the United States are up by 35.8 million barrels (3.4%) over last year and stand at 1.095 billion barrels (excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve).

IMPORTS/EXPORTS:The U.S. imported 7.6 million barrels of crude oil per day last week, up by 176,000bpd vs. the previous week. Total motor gasoline imports last week averaged 611,000bpd. The U.S. also imported 143,000bpd of distillate fuels. However, during the same time frame, the U.S. exported 484,000bpd of gasoline and 1.08mbpd of distillates. In total, U.S. refineries exported 3.1 million barrels per day of oil and products.

I people don't run red lights, then there would be no tickets. There was an intersection near my house with an average of 1 death a year over the last 15 years, caused by people running red lights. When teaching my son to drive, I took him to that intersection to show him that just because your light is green, do not assume you are safe.

This means they are still gouging and stealing. We just had 3 stations to go up to$3.89 plus and the next day come down to $3.74 plus. This is outright gouging and I don't care what anyone says. They make millions extra when they just go up by one dime.

Crude stocks swell to levels not seen since last summer, gasoline inventories drop and fuel prices at the pump continue to rise.Crude oil inventories increased, Gasoline inventories decreased, Distillate inventories decreased, Refinery utilization decreased 0.9% from last week, Total US oil stocks are up over last year but there are still high fuel prices at the pump. The fuel prices at the pump should be lower to help Sneeky's very bad crappy economy recover just a little bit faster!Big Oil and Big Gas sells fuel and natural gas on the world market for higher prices. 'Coming out of the closet' Sneeky's lousy, smoke and mirrors, lack of jobs, dog and pony show and in the crapper economy, the jobs are Not here. Sneeky's economy is not improving but continues to hurt the population and the job numbers continue to be down!No Thanks to the Mindless Pinhead Sheep that voted this bozo 'Sneeky' back in office.The US ‘oil and natural gas resources’ belong to the citizens of this country and are to be used by those same citizens! The price at the pump needs to go down to $2/gallon - *$3, *$3.50/gallon or *$4.00 is Not the new low!More Refineries are Not the answer, Stop exporting fuel!Take care of the domestic fuel market first and above all else!Drive vehicles with high MPG, are very safe, reliable, have a ‘reasonable’ cost and a good ‘value’ for the money.The price of fuel at the pump is too high!

Well what the h-ll do you expect when you artificially drive gas prices by speculation - people stop buying and that creates a glut that causes the prices to drop and causes the speculators to get burned and causes them to run to congress to help bail them out.

One major detail that GOP talking heads like to forget (like Sean Hannity today), is that we can give all the drilling permits we want to the oil companies, but if they don't see a high enough price for oil, so that they can make a good ROI, they're not going to drill.

So when they blame Obama for high gas prices, because we don't drill here enough, they're just talking malarkey!